CONQUEST AND UNIFICATION OF ITALY

- note: Romans did not start out with overt imperialist intentions

- Latin War (340-338)

- Intermittent wars with the Samnites (343-290)

- Tarentum defeated (282-272), despite the support of the Greek king Pyrrhus (cf. the phrase "Pyrrhic victory")

- after fall of Tarentum, Rome controlled Italy

METHODS OF RULE

- to keep the peoples they had conquered subjected, the Romans employed two techniques:

1. creation of Roman and Latin military colonies on lands that they confiscated.
2. selective grants of Roman citizenship to conquered peoples

THE PUNIC WARS

- First Punic War (264-241)

- land power (Rome) vs. sea-power (Carthage)

- but Rome creates navy, and finally emerged victorius

Second Punic War (218-201)

- Hannibal crosses Alps, invades Italy

- initial disasters: Hannibal destroys Roman armies at Trebia (218), at Lake Trasimene (217), and at Cannae (216)

- scorched earth policy of Quintus Fabius Maximus ("the delayer")

- final triumph of Scipio in Africa

MACEDONIAN WARS

First Macedonian War (214-205)

Second Macedonian War (200-196)

Third Macedonian War (171-168)